I'm not sure whether it's endearing or frustrating to learn that my own school district is right in the pack with
the latest education fads:
Of course, Differentiated Instruction is only one among many prominent detours American education has taken, none more pernicious than the chop-logic and excesses of what is now being advocated in the name of "21st-century education" or the simplistic requirement for teachers to mindlessly "incorporate technology" into their lessons-as though that will rescue poor instructional plans from failure.
Amazing, though, how the "power's that be" so quickly adopt these fads without really taking a close look at the research, if any, is behind them.
ReplyDeleteMy school is all about Kagan Structures. I call it "elementary school" for high school students. LOL.
I hate it when upper level administrators attend national seminars. They have low sales resistance. They see cooked stats on how this program or that will raise test scores and they buy into it. I would love to sell them real estate. Case in point, five years ago my district bought countless licenses and materials for Kurzweil, a program that would 'read' written material for students with learning disabilities. This would allow students to progress at their own speed and enable ESL students to hear as well as see the language. Five years later, nobody uses it although as a program I thought it had merit. Now the push is for RtI and we have to document concern at every level for students at risk. Consequently, we have online journals for students who are failing that pinpoint every single instance. I think it's just a legal ploy to CYA.
ReplyDeleteMy BTSA teacher several years ago pointed out that using overhead projectors counted as incorporating technology.
ReplyDeleteNow that we have LCD projectors and wireless tablets in our rooms (which I LOVELOVELOVE), using these counts. Especially when I plop the tablet in front of a kid and have him/her solve a problem. (The high-tech version of going up to the board.)
And when I can finally get the district tech-guys to unblock our google web sites (school district uses gmail), I can then upload the day's 'overheads & boardwork' to a website. Not to mention uploading handouts.
All of which has no effect on lesson plans, or *actual* learning. Which makes the tech requirement rather silly, in my opinion. But it does makes my life easier.